A Southwestern Speckled Rattlesnake resting along the top of a drainage after a night out. During the summer months, these and other rattlesnake species are primarily nocturnal, being encountered by people mostly in the hour before and after sunrise. As soon as the sun reaches the area, these snakes make a beeline for their aestivation sites to hide for the day.
The fact that rattlesnakes are often nocturnal and that they spend much of their lives avoiding excess heat is a surprise to many people. The misconception is that reptiles, ectotherms who get heat from the environment rather than produce it themselves, want it hot … the hotter the better. You’ll see this soon, in the form of comments like “it’s getting hot! It brings the rattlers out”, warnings from fire departments, and even articles in local news when temperatures stabilize in the triple digits for the year.
But thermoregulation means being the right temperature, not just as hot as possible. In fact, a body temperature sustained above around 105˚F can kill a rattlesnake. Interestingly, the upper terminal temperature seems to be similar across rattlesnake species, regardless of the environment they’re found. It’s often over 100˚F when these snakes begin their move back to their underground hiding spots, meaning they ride the line of death very closely, staying out as long as possible for the chance to find prey. If they are disturbed during this crawl for too long, or escape into the wrong hiding spot, it can quickly kill them.
We have learned this first-hand, unfortunately, from finding snakes within our study area who were first found by snake enthusiasts, likely mid-crawl. Thanks to Instagram, individual snakes that had died this way can be tied to individual events where a prolonged photo session and subsequent release of a heat-stressed snake resulted in death. To some herpers, it may seem like gatekeeping to discuss this kind of thing, but dead snakes are a lesson to those who would hear it.
During the summer, you may see us be critical of snake relocations performed by the fire department, and well-meaning individuals. This comes from the practice of releasing these snakes to improper cover, where they will be very unlikely to find survivable conditions in time. Every time you see a video of someone releasing a snake to open ground or random creosote mid-day, the relocator watches it crawl away and may be satisfied that they helped the animal … but these snakes do not survive for long.
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